The witnesses presented to give evidence against Dhiggaru MP Faris Maumoon has testified they don’t remember much.

The State presented two witnesses at Monday’s hearing on MP Faris’ case on identity fraud, after allegedly holding a news conference on behalf of ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) after he was dismissed from it.

The State charged him for using PPM’s flag and logo during the conference without its permission.

While Faris’ side raised a procedural issue to object to the State presenting two secret witnesses, Judge Ibrahim Ali allowed it. Afterwards, Faris’ legal team said they will be appealing to the High Court.

The first witness had been at Faris’ news conference as a member of the public. He said that Faris had sat at the conference with a PPM flag behind him, and spoke on behalf of the party. But the witness failed to remember what Faris had said, nor could he remember the exact words Faris used to convey he was speaking on behalf of PPM. He also failed to remember how he received the invitation for the conference as a member of the public.

The second witness repeated what the first said, and also failed to remember details of the conference, including how Faris conveyed he was speaking on behalf of the ruling party.

In the next hearing, Faris’ side will be deliberating on which of the 47 of their witnesses they would present. The prosecutor objected to presenting all the witnesses. The judge agreed to present a few.

Only three hearings are remaining on Faris’ identity fraud charge.